Firestorm Analysis Part 1 (Preface)

I should state a few things about Firestorm edited by Paul Addison and Jeremy A. Crang. It has been a wellspring of information to me and its panoramic assessment of the Dresden Raids is quite admirable. It brings together the perspectives of 10 different writers to consider, "the origin, conduct, and consequences of the raid." (from the blurb)

But onto the Preface, which I am mentioning because it sums up Dresden rather aptly:

"The bombing of Dresden - a city with a pre-war population of 640,000 - remains one of the most contentious episodes in the use of airpower during the Second World War. On the one hand it has been condemned as a war crime, and on the other hand defended as a justifiable, if ruthless, application of military force."

This is the simplest description of the debate of Dresden. As much as I would like to believe that there is a definitive conclusion to the Dresden saga there is not and will not be. This is not necessarily a bad thing, arguments lead to further research which leads to more evidence, allowing the individual to judge for themselves significance of Dresden's destruction on 13th February, 1945.